Moses the Rationalizer? (So like us.) by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, June 06, 2023

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.

Moses the rationalizer, eh? I don’t mean any disrespect; I think Moses was already a better man some 3,300 years ago than most of us Catholics are today. He was certainly in close touch with God, took on serious responsibilities for God’s people, and was willing to endure many hardships in following God’s instructions. Moses was frustrated from time to time, and he even free-lanced every now and again—meaning he did not always follow God’s will with absolute perfection. But he was a man of great courage and strength who frequently found himself exhausted as a result of doing what God asked.

In late April, I wrote about the nervousness Moses experienced in accepting God’s appointment as the one to lead the Jews out of Egypt to the Promised Land (see Does Moses foreshadow Christ AND each of us?). On that occasion I pointed out that God punished Moses for choosing his own way to bring water from the rock, the punishment being that Moses would not be permitted to enter the Promised Land after spending forty years guiding his people toward that goal. This is recorded in Numbers 20:10-13—which, by the way, is one of the Mosaic books. …

Continue reading >>>>